Crimson, Silver and White, Violet and Gold
by LiulfrLokison
Summary: Chapter 6: A king of an empty chessboard. Cloud would never find his eternal peace, and neither would Sephiroth. Both could never forgive the ones that cursed them to this fate. Poem based off events of Crisis Core, chapter 2 and future chapters are elaborated parts of the poem.
1. Chp 1: Five People, Five Different Lives

_Final Fantasy VII belongs to its creators and Square Enix. I do not own the rights to the mentioned characters, and if I did (somehow miraculously) have the rights, the characters would have already gone insane from just associating with me._

Five People, Five Different Lives

 _A cookie to everyone who realizes who is being referred to in the poem!_

-o0o-

Red as blood,  
Warm as flames.  
A mix of apple, cinnamon and spice.  
Feathers dark as the midnight sky.  
Drama and flair wherever he went.  
The one who deserted, first to take flight.

-o0o-

Cold as metal,  
Sharp as a knife.  
Sterile and clean, not a single defining scent.  
Wings clipped and bound, left flightless.  
Spreading awe, yet fear, both at the same time.  
The one kept in silence, loneliness driving him mad.

-o0o-

Pristine as paper,  
Caring like a mother.  
Rough, guarded defences, once past you've been accepted.  
Condemned by his fate, pure unmarked feathers.  
Sense of honour and dreams unwavering.  
The one with compassion, the first who died.

-o0o-

Bubbly as wine,  
Spreading chaos like a storm.  
Brimming with energy like the puppy they described.  
Abandoned by the one he called mentor.  
Forced to kill the very man who taught him.  
The one who died protecting his friends, a hero.

-o0o-

Quiet as stone,  
Power gained from sorrow.  
Emotions contradicting his very purpose in life.  
With only one enemy to face again and again.  
He lives out his years, mourning memories he does not remember.  
The one who survived, a living legacy.

-o0o-

 _A/N: And there you have it. I'll just leave this here and hope I haven't caused anyone to cry._


	2. Chp 2: The Cycle of Karma

**Crimson, Silver and White, Violet and Gold.**

 **Chp 2: The Cycle of Karma**

-o0o-

 _~Red as blood~_

Genesis had always been fascinated with the colour red.

A symbol of passion, determination and of course, love. His love was for the Goddess, for the iconic LOVELESS that was his shield from a world that sought to use him.

 _~Warm as flames~_

Magic was his obsession, the one skill he could hold over the mighty and flawless Silver General who excelled in all other areas of SOLDIER combat. The one thing he could win in comparison to the star of Shinra, yet it still wasn't enough to win against his best friend yet eternal rival.

 _~A mix of apple, cinnamon and spice~_

Being the son from a Banora White orchard, it normally surprised the people who knew him that he loved the fruit. After eating them every single day as a child, most people would be sick of it. But for Genesis it was a reminder that a new friends could be easily found but must be selected wisely, even though they might have a sweet personality and appearance, they may be rotten at the core.

 _~Feathers dark as the midnight sky~_

When his dark wing burst from his shoulder, Genesis first thought it was a curse, a burden to add to his sin of being a monster. But it wasn't long until he adored the jet black wing, enabling him with the ability to fly, to be free for once in his life without the weight of gravity on his shoulders. Yet its colour would make him think him of Sephiroth's coat, always a constant reminder that he was the failed experiment while the Silver General was the success.

 _~Drama and flair wherever he went~_

Genesis was a dramatic bastard. Oh, he knew it well, thank you very much. It was part of who he was, his personality and bright clothing only adding to it. When he walked into a room, it was to pull attention to him, being showy and loud in order to have their focus on him so as not to stare star - struck at the taller silver haired SOLDIER. Even on this stage, he still lost the battle.

 _~The one who deserted, first to take flight~_

Genesis felt no remorse when he abandoned Shinra, only anger at what they had done to him. He felt no regret when he approached Sephiroth in the Nibelhelm reactor, leaving his once friend to his disastrous fate, never expecting that the world would pay for what he had wrought.

-o0o-

So now here he stood, atop what had once been the shining Shinra Tower, the symbol of greed reduced to rubble and mortar.

Recalling his words to a certain Puppy, he had never thought his words would have come true.

 _"If this world, seeks my destruction . . . It goes with me."_

In truth, he had only told Sephiroth part of his origins, leaving the confused General to find the rest. Yet as he remembered those days of old, he now came to the realization that it was him who triggered the events that would in future come to throw Gaia into dismay.

And his payment for causing such chaos was to once again become a lab rat for Shinra.

It would seem that karma, was very much real.

-o0o-

 _The three friends have been parted, the wanderer is left to walk the earth with the knowledge that it was his selfishness that almost caused the world's destruction._

 _He chooses to live on for his friends, accepting his prolonged existence as his price for betraying the bond the three shared._

 _The cycle of karma._

 _-o0o-_

 _A/N: I was re - reading the poem and I got a flash of inspiration about Genesis and decided to write this piece, more or less I looked at the lines and wrote whatever came to mind. The title was inspired as I was reading a Wicca book as a resource for a possible novel idea I might write in the future, and karma is a key principle for them. It sort of made me think it was kind of ironic that Genesis was the first to leave of the three, but was the last of them left, and so the idea of karma came to mind. Also the fact that he escaped Shinra because he found out he was a lab experiment only to be taken back for another one._

 _So thanks for reading and please tell me what you think! I would be really grateful for feedback!_

 _LiulfrLokison out! :3_


	3. Chp 3: Is Existing A Good Thing?

**Crimson, Silver and White, Violet and Gold.**

 **Is Existing A Good Thing?**

 _Final Fantasy VII belongs to its creators and Square Enix. I do not own the rights to the mentioned characters, and if I did (somehow miraculously) have the rights, the characters would have already gone insane from just associating with me._

-o0o-

 _~ Cold as metal ~_

He never really understood emotions, not that there was anyone who had been willing to explain them to him in the laboratory. He forgot that he had them, becoming as cold as the blade he wielded. Emotions were fickle and were a nuisance on the battlefield. But that was all changed the day he was introduced to the puzzle that was known as Genesis Rhapsodos.

 _~ Sharp as a knife ~_

Anyone who knew Sephiroth in his early years would describe him as being blunt to the point. His words were as sharp as the monstrous Masamune he was known to slaughter his enemies with. He would use his words to cut down those who opposed him, giving them no room to argue, plain hard cold facts to get his point across. Yet it would only take one born and raised Banoran to dull that blade, showing the child soldier that his words could be used for a much more gentler purpose.

 _~ Sterile and clean, not a single defining scent ~_

His regulated apartment was bare, decorated with black and white, everything had been provided by Shinra. Sephiroth was much different than his fellow SOLDIER's in this aspect, he felt no need to change anything. He hardly used his quarters, only for bathing and sleeping when he was not assigned for a mission. Having grown up in a lab, he was used to the stark white wallpaper, bare counters and sterile equipment. However the first time he stepped into his 'friends' (Angeal insisted on Sephiroth calling him and Genesis as such), he felt for the first time, an emotion known as longing.

 _~ Wings clipped and bound, left flightless ~_

Ever since Genesis had vanished, Angeal soon following in his footsteps, there had been a strange sensation in his chest, one that Sephiroth couldn't describe. It was an awfully long time before Sephiroth understood what it was. That first moment Sephiroth faced Genesis again in the bowels of the Midgar Reactors, the instant that black wing unfurled, he knew what that constant thumping in his heart was. It was jealously, and it was very much like the 'green - eyed monster' as described. His jealously for being left behind in the cruel clutches of the people who had caged him from birth, only fueled the fires of hatred he had come to know.

 _~ Spreading awe, yet fear, both at the same time ~_

Sephiroth was revered as both a hero and a villain. It depended on who you asked. The civilians of Midgar and his fellow SOLDIER's saw him as such, but those in Wutai who he had made widows or orphans, he was the demon they despised. Those who praised him feared his power, and those who hated him could not help but be in awe of that power. And of course that was one of the many reasons he and Genesis never got along.

 _~ The one kept in silence, loneliness driving him mad ~_

Shinra was his prison, even though it looked like he was free. A puppet, a pawn in a much larger game that he would never understand as his mind crumbled under the pressure from both sides. His origins that were a mystery to him, the moment the information was thrust upon him he seized it as if it was food for a starving man. With no one to reign him in (one willingly chose his death and the other pursued power), he easily fell into the abyss and allowed alien hands to pull his strings.

-o0o-

So here he was, a powerless puppet that could do nothing but watch as JENOVA tore the world apart, silently praying that someone would put a stop to the madness he had succumbed to.

The years passed by, and he watched the planet thrive, unable to join the cycle of life.

All because of another's selfish desires.

And as he observed those who had stopped him from breaking the planet perish from different causes, he had only one question that he wished to ask whoever had created their world.

Was his existence beneficial at all?

-o0o-

 _The silver general, a pawn in the game we call life, is cursed to a pitiful existence. Even though he enjoyed the times he had with those he could now call friends, he wonders if his life had been worth living, if he had known what was to come._

 _Something that he will question for the rest of his life as a phantom._

 _-o0o-_

 _A/N: Sephiroth's piece was hard to write, as I used what I personally thought Sephiroth was like. Angeal and Genesis changed him from being an emotionless child SOLDIER to the one we encounter in Crisis Core. I think they would have mellowed him out, Angeal would call them friends while Genesis' dramatics would have encouraged Sephiroth to understand and use his emotions rather than keep them locked away. The ending bit is because I feel that the Planet would reject him from the Lifestream since he did try to destroy it (although it was really JENOVA), and would be a sort of phantom, unable to be seen but never join the Lifestream._

 _Thanks for reading!_

 _LiulfrLokison out! :3_


	4. Chp 4: WhatCouldBeMorePainfulThanDeath?

**Crimson, Silver and White, Violet and Gold.**

 **What Could Be More Painful Than Death?**

 _Final Fantasy VII belongs to its creators and Square Enix. I do not own the rights to the mentioned characters, and if I did (somehow miraculously) have the rights, the characters would have already gone insane from just associating with me._

 _A/N: I would like to thank_ _ **CryptCreeperX**_ _for the wonderful review I received, and I love your story_ _ **Wonders of the World**_ _._ _To_ _ **ren7720**_ _, thank you for the review and about the technique, I didn't really have one when I originally wrote it, I'm more of a impulsive poetry writer if I was to label myself, I sometimes like to make them rhyme, and sometimes I just go with the flow._

 _Well, here's the new update, Angeal's part of the poem._

-o0o-

 _~ Pristine as paper~_

When it came to paperwork and schedules, Angeal was the more reliable of the three. He handled them efficiently and without delay. So it wasn't too much of a surprise that he was the first to see Genesis' MIA status. The first emotion that came was disbelief, Genesis was the strongest magic caster he knew, there was no way that his friend could have been taken down easily. It was from that day forth he watched his paperwork like a hawk, waiting for any news about the first person he could truly call his friend.

 _~Caring like a mother~_

Angeal was always the more compassionate of the Holy Trinity (the title that the public had so 'graciously' bestowed upon them), always the one to break up Genesis and Sephiroth's scuffles. The other SOLDIER's would always go to him if they had doubts, questions or simply needed someone to talk to. (Shinra was too stingy to hire therapists). So when he had to abandon the young man, who had against all odds made him feel like a proud parent, it was in his mind, the first step he took towards his damnation.

 _~Rough, guarded defences, once past you've been accepted~_

If Genesis was the hot headed drama queen, and Sephiroth the cold icy prince, then Angeal was the strict yet compassionate king. If SOLDIER's proved themselves to be trustworthy and caring about the other's in their division, that was all it took for Angeal to regularly check up on their progress, a large group of acquaintances that soon became his comrades in arms. To see them defecting and becoming copies of his oldest friend tore at his heart until it was nothing more than a stuttering lump of blood and muscle. Every breath he took was torture as he watched them die, but nothing would compare to the absolute agony he felt as he stuck down those who had once called him comrade.

 _~Condemned by his fate, pure unmarked feathers~_

The idea of angels had always intrigued Angeal, they were so close to humans except for the pure white wings that separated them from being called mere mortals. Something that was out of his reach, the idea of being free from the chains that bound him from the harsh reality of man. But the moment those wings unfurled from his back, he realised how ironic the situation was. He craved to be an angel, but the moment he attained what he had wanted all along, he didn't want it anymore. What he gained in becoming a being that lived outside the cruelty of humanity, was not worth the sacrifices he had to make in order to become a winged guardian.

 _~Sense of honour and dreams unwavering~_

Honour and dreams, a lecture he was well known for. If one was to ask what morals Angeal valued the most, it would be those two. The rare times someone asked him to explain why honour and dreams were what he valued the most, Angeal would be glad to clarify why he cherished them most of all. And yet here he was, abandoning his honour as he deserted Shinra, his friend, his student, his comrades. His dreams were all but shattered, knowing that his demise was soon approaching drew those ideas to a stuttering halt, becoming whimsical thoughts that he soon discarded, all except for one.

 _~The one with compassion, the first who died~_

Death had always been on Angeal's mind, being a SOLDIER on the front lines he would be an idiot to not have that thought stowed away in his brain. Many had died already in the war, being enhanced didn't matter when facing an enemy that was backed into a corner. Human's fight or flight instincts tended to rear its ugly head at those times (hence the anti – Shinra monsters). Angeal always thought he would die in the line of duty, but sadly it was not to be. Handing his sword to Zack, the symbol of his honour and dreams, was the hardest experience of his life, not even the harsh SOLDIER training could compare. Yet his death was peaceful, almost pleasant as he joined the Lifestream.

-o0o-

Angeal had believed the hardest thing he would have to face would occur in his lifetime, but had never thought it would happen after his death.

He couldn't help but scream at Genesis in vain, knowing he would not hear those desperate pleas as his old friend taunted Sephiroth, who Angeal could tell was barely hanging onto his sanity by a thread.

He watched in anguish as the proud man fell prey to madness, Nibelhelm burning was the price of his rage.

Horror coursed through his veins as his beloved student was dragged into darkness, four whole years before that face saw the surface again.

Praying and hoping that Zack would make it back to Midgar to meet his lover once again, forced to a halt with the city looming on the horizon.

Nothing could compare to the heart – wrenching misery as his student was gunned down, so close to his goal only to find his actions were in vain . . .

And as he held out his hand to greet his student, his son, a proud smile on his face for protecting his friend till the end, that dream Angeal had held onto for so long broke, as easily as the stained glass window of his youth had been, decorated with the angels he had so longed to meet.

The dream that Zack would live on, enjoying his life to the fullest . . .

And here he thought nothing could be more painful than death.

-o0o-

 _The white winged angel watches over his loved ones, unable to stop them from being torn apart by the cruelty of human greed. He can do nothing, only pray that they live and survive, yet it all was for naught._

 _All he can do is welcome one of them as they join him in the afterlife._

 _-o0o-_

 _A/N: I thought that Sephiroth's would be the hardest to write, but in fact it turned out that Angeal's was the worst one so far in this poetic series. It was hard to not cry as I wrote the second half, imaging that Angeal had to watch Genesis cut that last thread of sanity that Sephiroth had, seeing Nibelhelm burn and Zack falling into Hojo's hands, and then seeing his student die when he was so close to Midgar . . ._

 _The pain he must have felt when Zack joined him in the Lifestream, trying to smile so that Zack wouldn't know he had seen everything . . ._

 _I'm tearing up right now as I'm writing this!_

 _Well, thanks for reading this and please tell me what you think!_

 _LiulfrLokison out! TT_TT_


	5. Chp 5: The Storybooks Had Lied

**Crimson, Silver and White, Violet and Gold.**

 **The Storybooks Had Lied**

 _It's been a while since I touched this one . . ._

 _I have no words. Prepare your tears ducts._

 _Final Fantasy VII belongs to its creators and Square Enix. I do not own the rights to the mentioned characters, and if I did (somehow miraculously) have the rights, the characters would have already gone insane from just associating with me._

-o0o-

 _~Bubbly as wine~_

Zachary Fair was known for his energy and bright personality. It was part of his trademark. Meeting the 2nd Class SOLDIER was like downing a glass of bubbly wine, he could lift your spirits with ease, make you laugh and forget your troubles. So when that bright bubbly personality deflated like a balloon, it was very noticeable. The whole of SOLDIER knew how much he longed to be a 1st Class like his mentor, but when he received it . . .

The feeling was akin to drinking a glass of flat wine.

 _~Spreading chaos like a storm~_

The moment Zack walked into a room, all eyes would turn to him. Because they all knew of his quirks, and that Zack had a very small attention span. The moment they took their eyes off him, he would be rummaging through cupboards, flicking through books and causing chaos like he did when he had been a cadet. Having Reno Sinclair as a roommate certainly didn't help, as the two were notorious pranksters causing destruction throughout the whole Tower. That lack of attention span was what made him a problem, he had the skills, the stamina, the qualities of a SOLDIER, but was unable to focus. But that was what made him who he was.

When his abilities to become a virtual storm started to only appear on the battlefield, it was obvious to see that he was slowly becoming someone he was not.

 _~Brimming with energy like the puppy they described~_

Zack's energy was one of the reasons he was a prime candidate for SOLDIER, and also the reason for his nickname. A puppy that was eager to please, to make friends, and it showed through his actions. He could never sit still, not even in tense situations.

And as the days went by, his energy spent pursuing the defectors, his eyes lost that shine, and his eagerness became an act to cope, no one had the heart to call him 'Puppy' again.

 _~Abandoned by the one he called mentor~_

Angeal had been one of Zack's role models, someone he could aspire to be. So when he gained the man as a mentor, it truly was a dream come true. He knew Angeal's lecture on dreams and honour by heart, values that he kept close to his heart. As he learned and matured from the Banoran born and bred, he always thought he would be with Angeal forever.

When Angeal never came back down the path, and hearing the words "Angeal has betrayed us as well" fall from Sephiroth's lips, he heard the sound of something snapping.

Zack just wasn't sure if that was the twigs under his feet or the sound of his heart breaking.

 _~Forced to kill the very man who taught him~_

Zack and Angeal had sparred a few times during their training sessions, Angeal always reminding him to not fight like this was a practice session, but like his very life depended on it. Zack of course knew Angeal said that because he needed to see the extent of Zack's abilities, but never had thought that those words would come true in the future.

And as he stood over Angeal's dying body, he made a vow to carry on his mentor's spirit, despite a little voice in his mind telling him he didn't have the right when he had just murdered the man who had practically been his father away from home.

As he walked away with that new burden in the form of a sword on his shoulders, another part of his purity and innocence died within him.

 _~The one who died protecting his friends, a hero~_

Zack had often heard the parts of LOVELESS, it was impossible to do so when Angeal was friends with Genesis. He had once picked a spare copy up that he found in Angeal's apartment, flicking through the pages and reading the acts. Of course out of the characters in the play, his favourite was the hero. Because that was what he aspired to be, a hero.

But unlike the hero in the play, Zack never got the chance to leave the stage.

He became the wanderer and prisoner before he was able to achieve his goal, becoming the hero of his own story.

He should have known, that becoming a hero wasn't that easy.

-o0o-

Zack had been a foolish naïve child, his head full of dreams, and a sword in his hand.

It was only when he learned loss that he fully understood the path of a hero was not as it seemed in the storybooks that his mother read to him at night.

The road of a hero was paved with hardships, full of potholes and road blocks, teeming with monsters that weren't just limited to beasts and adversaries, but the greed of human nature.

He lost his mentor, he lost his friends, he lost his life.

Held prisoner by a human's desire for power.

Made a wanderer to save the life of another.

And finally, a hero through an act of self – sacrifice.

In the end, he became a hero.

But they never tell you of the hardships that come with the title of a hero in the stories.

The storybooks had lied.

-o0o-

 _The gullible child grew up to be a hero, learning that it was only a title that wasn't worth the trials to gain it._

 _He watched three men fall in his desire to become one._

 _One who desired to become the hero bringing destruction to soothe his ego, the child making him humble in order to be cured._

 _One who desired not to be a hero dragged into the conflict, the child forced to execute the angel who wanted nothing but to be human._

 _One who desired to not be the hero but had the title thrust upon him, the child unable to save the puppet of the Calamity from his cursed destiny._

 _And now the child watches over the legacy he placed upon another lost soul, a gullible child just like himself._

-o0o-

 _A/N: Well, Zack's chapter got dark rather quick._

 _I was halfway through the mentor aspect and had to stop before I burst into tears in public!_

 _I just felt in the mood to try and get another chapter done, and this was the result._

 _Hope you enjoyed (well, by enjoy I mean understood and could see my point), and hopefully Cloud's chapter will be a little easier to tackle!_

 _LiulfrLokison out! :3_


	6. Chp 6: A King Of An Empty Chessboard

**Crimson, Silver and White, Violet and Gold.**

 **A King Of An Empty Chessboard**

 _So . . . this one just wrote itself._

 _Not exactly canon to the story, and I know nothing of the game play in FFVII since I never played the game, but I'm going off what I've read and my own ideas._

 _Final Fantasy VII belongs to its creators and Square Enix. I do not own the rights to the mentioned characters, and if I did (somehow miraculously) have the rights, the characters would have already gone insane from just associating with me._

-o0o-

 _~Quiet as stone~_

Cloud had always been a quiet child, learning that if he kept silent, the other children wouldn't seek him out, and it came quite handy when he did have to hide from them on the occasions he did get into fights. Being silent though, didn't help in the SOLDIER program, the other cadets saw him as an easy target and it took all he had in him to not lash out in retaliation. The infantry was the same, but he managed to grow out of it when he met Zack. A fellow country boy, someone he could relate to in some ways, but not most. Zack was bubbly, spirited, the complete opposite of him.

No wonder it had been odd when he thought he was Zack, exuding a confidence that he wasn't sure he would have naturally developed.

It was hard sometimes, when the memories got mixed up.

And that was when his silence both helped and hindered him.

The others never noticed the signs of when he just wanted to be alone, or was lost in his own head.

 _~Power gained from sorrow~_

Cloud always dreamed to be a SOLDIER, like any other young boy.

Well, in the other towns.

Nibelhelm was a traditionalist town. If you're born in Nibelhelm, you die in Nibelhelm. And you never leave.

He was different though, and set off to fulfill his dream. But he failed, returning to Nibelhelm a trooper and hiding his face from the people who had belittled him and mocked him his entire life. And of course tragedy fell in the cursed town, he harmed the very man he aspired to be like, and became a prisoner for a man who sought to play God when he was just a pawn in the grand scheme of things.

He gained the power he sought all his life, but not though his own efforts.

He became a SOLDIER at the cost of damning someone else's fate.

 _~Emotions contradicting his very purpose in life~_

Cloud was a very emotionless child, unable to express himself in fear of being hurt. In SHINRA, emotions got in the way of the job. Mentally, he was still a child that had been thrown into an adult's world, and four years stuck in a mako tube halted that development even further.

Although his body was in prime condition for his age (he was supposed to be in his twenties but even he wasn't sure of his own age), his mind was essentially still of a young boys. Having all those foreign memories in his head didn't help either, causing him to switch between a cheery twenty one year old and a solemn, silent ten year old.

He was supposed to be happy, content, his fight with old enemies was over, he should be living his life, there were two kids who looked up to him as a role model and the others had set aside their weapons to get their lives back on track.

But his mind, his emotions, never let him rest. He was in constant fight or flight mode, and there was no one on Gaia who could understand how he felt.

 _~With only one enemy to face again and again~_

Cloud had one enemy.

And that was Sephiroth.

The man he once admired, the man he had killed, always came back to haunt him. Be it in real life or in his dreams, be it in the form of a spectre or those Remnants, Sephiroth was the bane and reason for his existence.

Without Sephiroth, Cloud was nothing.

 _~He lives out his years, mourning memories he does not remember~_

Cloud watched as years went by, they had dealt with Sephiroth, Meteor, Geostigma, Reunion, Deepground, the others grew old and weary, their children growing up into young teens and eventually adults.

And still there were memories he could not recall.

He couldn't remember what his mother looked like, often confusing her with the image of a brown haired woman living in a town surrounded by a jungle and frogs. He knew names of SOLDIER's he had never met, of missions he never went on, but still he couldn't remember the important things, the memories that made him who he was.

There was a constant itch in his brain, telling him there were things he was forgetting, but anything before the Nibelhelm mission, his own memories, were jumbled and even lost forever.

He would never be the person Tifa grew up with.

How could he, when he didn't even know who he was himself?

 _~The one who survived, a living legacy~_

Cloud was a survivor, his childhood in Nibelhelm had forged him into a person who could survive through anything.

But never this.

Nibelhelm had never prepared him to watch his friends pass, his loved ones die, their children grow into adults and die as time wore on.

He was a legend, a tale told on cold winter nights around campfires, a golden swordsman who had led the team that saved the Planet from the Calamity.

Yet, it should have been about a raven haired swordsman with a bright smile, a head full of dreams and a heart of gold.

It should have been about Zack, the one who wished to be the hero.

Vincent was the only person who was left, forever guarding the cave that his beloved Lucrecia had sealed herself in. But what was left of his former comrade was slowly losing to the demons that inhabited his body. Without Chaos, Vincent was losing to the demons that Hojo had buried in the former Turk's corpse, and when Vincent finally lost to the demons, he had given Cloud the weary task of killing him before he lost what was left of his humanity.

When Vincent died, Cloud would be the last from the age of SHINRA.

Another legacy to be a burden on his weary shoulders.

-o0o-

Cloud had been the spare, the pawn on a chessboard that was already full.

He had been the prisoner, used in the plans of others, caught in the cycle of karma.

He had been the hero, facing the enemy of the world, a puppet of a phantom that still lingered.

He had been a wanderer, an outsider in his own town, wishing for the pain of death that would never come.

And he had been the child, gullible and naïve, carrying the burden of a legacy of another's dream.

He was all alone in a world that had no need for heroes, that time was over.

No one needed him, and he needed no one.

For who would want a broken hero?

A king of an empty chessboard.

-o0o-

 _He had been the extra, in the play that had decided the world's end._

 _An unknown element that changed the script, throwing the rhythm of the dance of fate into disarray, the participants, be they willing or not, left without their partners and at a loss of how to continue._

 _He was the last of his generation, forever cursed to wander the land not as payment for his own sins, but because of the greed of another._

 _He was lost, just as his unwilling nemesis._

 _Neither of them would find their eternal peace, and neither would they forgive the ones that cursed them to this fate._

-o0o-

 _A/N: So, since Sephiroth can't really join the Lifestream because of JENOVA, I sort of thought that because Cloud has so many JENOVA cells in him anyway that the Planet wouldn't let him pass, and since all its WEAPON's are gone, he's sort of become the only thing that can respond to a global threat._

 _And thus this ending was created._

 _I might write one more chapter to wrap it up, and it will probably mostly involve my version of how LOVELESS ties into Crisis Core (when I first finished the game I had a theory of how LOVELESS was involved with the entire game plot)._

 _Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and goodnight for now._

 _LiulfrLokison out! :3_


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